When it comes to weddings in Nigeria, gift-giving and receiving have always been one of the top highlights. You'd expect the use of gift registry services to have grown significantly over the years, but despite its gradual rise in popularity, we haven't seen any major changes.
Only one question comes to mind; Why?
To help us understand this further, we have Miss Anjolaofisan, a wedding content creator and influencer, joining us to discuss this matter.
Please tell us briefly about yourself :
Hello, my name is Anjolaoluwa Osunfisan. I’m a wedding content creator/Influencer who has a great passion for love, weddings and most importantly capturing beautiful candid behind the scenes moments of couples on their wedding day for them to look back on over and over again. Well, my journey into the wedding creation/influencing field has been all God. I always knew I wanted to do content creation especially towards my final year at the university. However, I knew I didn’t want to do the regular content creation. I wanted a niche of my own that had something to do with what I love and just like that after falling in love gradually with wedding photography shoutout to Bedgepictures, I decided to delve into it bit by bit.
I did my research, read up and I went ahead and made friends with some of the people in the wedding field and as God would have it, the vision kept growing and increasing and I knew it was time to add influencing fully because wedding creatives/vendors deserve more publicity than what they get. There are so many talented wedding vendors and creatives who do not get enough accolades for the wonderful works and services they provide. It was just time to connect wedding vendors/creatives with their target audience.
In all, it hasn’t been an easy ride but God has brought me up all the way.
So let’s get into it. Why do you think gift registries aren't as popular in Nigerian weddings as they are in other places?
I think gift registries aren’t as popular in Nigeria probably because the publicity is a bit low. Secondly, because people don’t fully grasp the reason behind it. A lot of people still don’t really understand the benefits they can derive from having a gift registry. Also, I think there are limited options in terms of style and level of creativity on the path of gift registry creatives couples have to pick from.
Ah, that makes sense. Are there any specific challenges you’ve noticed that couples face when they try to bring in gift registries to their Nigerian weddings?
Well, some of the things affecting couples when it comes to gift registries for their Nigerian weddings are complexity of some of the gift registry sites as well as bland sites that can’t necessarily tell their stories. Gift registries shouldn’t just be about items that can be gifted to the couple but it should be able to tell a bit of story about the couple and their love journey in a way that even pushes people to gift.
That's a tricky balance for sure. How do you think introducing gift registries could change the vibe or experience of weddings in Nigeria?
Introducing gift registries will definitely change the experience of Nigerian weddings for both guests and the couple themselves especially because it makes the process of gift giving easier. The guests know what the couple want/need and the couple get exactly what they want which I think is a win win!
Absolutely! Are there any myths or misconceptions about gift registries that might be holding Nigerian couples back from using them?
I think the most common misconception I’ve heard about gift registries has to be that it’s an “organized” way of begging for gifts from people to fund your desired lifestyle after marriage which is totally wrong. Your guests will probably ask you what you want as a wedding gift or even still gift you items without asking anyway🤷♀️.
So why not just make the process easier for everyone by providing them with options of gifts you’d love to receive from them.
At the end of the day, not everyone would gift you something so make the process easier for the few who would want to.
True! Any cool strategies or tips you have in mind that could get Nigerian couples excited about embracing gift registries at their weddings?
Most couples are looking for gift registries that would give them ease as well as tell a bit of their love story in a fun and cool way. Wedding planning is already a lot so creating a gift registry shouldn’t be added to the list of things that stresses them out again. Hence, something really straightforward, that doesn’t require too much information and isn’t too complex would be a great start to getting couples excited about gift registries at their weddings. I believe a gift registry site that offers this could really win the hearts of new Nigerian couples as these are some of the major problems they have with existing gift registries.
Love that idea! Lastly, have you noticed any shifts or changes recently that hint at a growing interest in gift registries among Nigerian couples?
Uhm I’m not so sure but I’ll definitely say more people are buying into the idea of having gift registries for their wedding day.
I believe the more people get to understand the idea behind gift registries, the more they embrace it. But could it also be the economy and high cost of living ? 😂lol who knows ?!
This was such an interesting and educating session.
I'm glad we had this talk because if there's one thing we love to do at Sincerelyyoursng , it's ensuring each gift registry tells the love story of each couple and our ultimate goal has always been to make gifting easy for everyone.
Thank you for this eye opening session .
😁 Thank you so much for having me.